The blockchain revolution is still merely in its infancy.  Liquidity Digital seeks to continue pushing the industry forward, by digitizing securities – stocks, derivatives, real estate, and more – and placing them on the blockchain.  Liquidity Digital is building an ecosystem for the creation of new assets, introducing ways to allocate capital to traditionally underserved areas of financial markets and provide a practical application of distributed ledger...

With the growth of the compliance profession and the importance of compliance functions as part of corporate governance, there has been a significant increase in the quantity and quality of compliance studies and surveys. It takes time to keep up with all the compliance information being developed and released. In this episode, Michael Volkov reviews two recent compliance studies. 

Global banks are the poster children of sanctions violations and the importance of trade compliance.  At the top of the heap is Standard Chartered Bank. In a long-awaited resolution of a multi-year investigation, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), the New York District Attorney’s (DANY), the Federal Reserve, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) and the United...

Fresenius Medical, the largest supplier of dialysis equipment and services agreed to pay $231 million to the Justice Department and the SEC to resolve FCPA violations in 17 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.  Fresenius entered a non-prosecution agreement  with the Justice Department, in which it agreed to pay an $87 million payment and a two-year corporate monitor.  Fresenius agreed to enhance its compliance program and...

In another blockbuster FCPA prosecution, the Justice Department and the SEC announced an $850 million settlement with Mobile Telesystems (“MTS”), Russia’s largest mobile carrier. At the same time, the Justice Department announced criminal indictments against an MTS executive and the notorious corrupt Uzbek official, Gulnara Karimova, on criminal charges. In this episode, Michael Volkov discusses the MTS Telesystems FCPA enforcement action.

Corporations have to invest in their Speak Up Culture.  A critical component is a company’s hotline and incident reporting system.  An effective hotline reporting channel(s) depends on responsive and timely investigations of potential wrongdoing. In this Episode, Michael Volkov discusses best practices for hotline and reporting systems.

In the first corporate FCPA action of 2019, Cognizant Technology Solutions Company settled its long-running FCPA case, agreeing to pay the SEC $25 million.  At the same time, the Justice Department announced: (1) its’ declination under the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy; and (2) the indictment of Cognizant’s former President and General Counsel for criminal FCPA violations. In this Episode, Michael Volkov discusses the Cognizant FCPA...

OFAC is off to a fast start in 2019.  It has implemented enhanced Venezuela sanctions and designated PDVSA as a Specially Designated National, and brought four separate enforcement actions with important lessons learned for sanctions compliance. In this Episode, Michael Volkov reviews OFAC’s actions and outlines important sanctions compliance lessons learned.

The corporate governance landscape is littered with companies that have suffered major legal and reputational damage as a result of failure to promote and protect a safe workplace environment.  Companies have failed to hold offenders accountable for sexual misconduct and violation of applicable legal and code requirements. The #MeToo era has resulted in increased reporting of sexual misconduct allegations and requires enhanced monitoring of corporate...

The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”) was a watershed moment in data and privacy compliance.  The new law applies to all companies and persons within the European Union and the European Economic Area.  Since its effective date, May 25, 2018, enforcement of the new law has begun.  In the first year, compliance and enforcement practitioners have identified important issues and trends for companies and...